His 7,000-year-old bones were found in what is modern-day Spain. And DNA testing reveals that this European hunter-gather could be the missing link between dark-skinned African man and white-skinned Europeans.
Researchers see all of this in those old bones, documenting a man with dark skin and dark hair -- but blue eyes. The bones, dubbed "La Brana 1" by scientists, were found along with another skeleton in a Spanish cave back in 2006.
And according to researchers from the Spanish National Research Council, this particular ancient man bucked both trends by having a combination of African and European genes, which led to his dark skin and light eyes.
Even more ground-breaking is what could be the reason European man eventually became white: A combination of a grain diet as man became farmers and of the poor sunlight on the European continent.
The result? Bodies of European man needed to manufacture more Vitamin D, so his skin lightened, eventually becoming white. (Lighter skin absorbs more ultraviolet rays, an important adaptation for making Vitamin D in sun-poor environments. Our body naturally produces Vitamin D when ultraviolet rays in sunshine strike the skin. And Vitamin D is essential for the absorption of calcium, to keep our bones healthy.)
Background according to published reports: The analysis is the first of a genome of a hunter-gather from the Mesolithic period — the time between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago — to be fully sequenced.
The Mesolithic period, or Middle Stone Age was followed by the Neolithic era, when hunter-gatherers became farmers and started eating a lot more grains. This dietary switch could be the reason Europeans developed lighter skin, researchers conclude.